Funeral bell

Statema, B. C. P.

Fungus

Funeral bell

Galerina marginata

Known today as: A small brown mushroom of rotting wood.
Kind: Fungus
Constituents: alpha-amanitin
Poisoning: Amatoxin poisoning
In other databases: GBIF search · Wikidata search

Revised October 3, 2026: Checked against its sources, each read in full, in part, or in its abstract. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.

Deadly. Historical description only.

Funeral bell: what was it used for?

None.

Funeral bell: what does modern science say?

Contains the amatoxins of the death cap.

Funeral bell: is it poisonous?

Yes, and it can kill. Its poisoning is amatoxin poisoning: 6 to 24 hours, usually 10 to 12, with no symptoms before: the long latency is the mark of it. Historical description, not medical advice; in a poisoning, call a poison centre.

Pharmacognosy & Toxicology

Constituents

alpha-amanitin ChEMBL

Mechanism

As the death cap: the amatoxins of Galerina marginata are the same, in a small brown mushroom mistaken for the honey fungus and the hallucinogenic Psilocybe.

Toxic dose

Not established; several poisonings have followed when it was gathered in mistake for the hallucinogenic Psilocybe stuntzii.

Syndrome

Amatoxin poisoning

Standing

None.

Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.

Funeral bell: what lore surrounds it?

A plain little brown mushroom, which may be mistaken for the edible honey fungus and for some Psilocybe species.

In Their Own Words

Atkinson describes Pholiota marginata as a very common small species found throughout the autumn on decaying trunks in woods; he says nothing of eating it.

“This is one of the very common species, a small one, occurring all during the autumn, on decaying trunks, etc., in the woods. The plants are usually clustered, though appearing also singly.”

George Francis Atkinson, Studies of American Fungi. Mushrooms, Edible, Poisonous, etc., Chapter VIII (The Ochre-Spored Agarics), Pholiota marginata. Second edition; New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1903 (Project Gutenberg eBook #26492). The text, read in part

Each passage is quoted from the text named, which the press fetched and read, and was checked word for word against a fresh copy of it; the link opens that copy. Passages are given as printed, without the editors’ footnote numbers, and with words broken across lines joined.

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. “Galerina marginata.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galerina_marginata (read 2 October 2026). Read in full · the text read

Verification

Checked

October 1, 2026, and October 3, 2026

Passes

Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
Every source read, in full, in part, or in its abstract, and every sentence checked against what was read (October 3, 2026)

Sources

1 cited: 1 read in full.

Corrections

None were needed.

What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.

Cite This Entry

Version 1 · first published September 25, 2026 · last revised October 3, 2026

Chicago: “Funeral bell.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 3, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/funeral-bell.
MLA: “Funeral bell.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 3 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/funeral-bell. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
APA: Funeral bell. (2026, October 3). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/funeral-bell

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